By Isle of Wight Observer
As we prepare to say goodbye to 2023, we thought we’d take a look back at the year with a front page story from every month.
January 2023
The government coughed up £1 million in January, after the IW Observer noticed the sum was missing from the Isle of Wight Council’s accounts. The payment had been announced in the Local Government Finance Settlement in February 2022, but had not been honoured. We submitted Freedom of Information questions in December – and after playing for time by asking what we meant by “full details” and “background documents” the government finally confirmed in January that they had handed the money over.
February 2023
In February we disclosed that an average of only 18 Island patients a month were travelling to Portsmouth for NHS treatment. This came after £10 million awarded to the Isle of Wight NHS Trust was handed over to Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust to build two new wards with 72 beds at the Queen Alexander Hospital. Islanders occupied less than 3 per cent of the bed capacity in the new facilities and there is no guarantee that beds will be made available for Islanders. Once again the information came from Freedom of Information Act replies. The IW Observer had to appeal against an initial refusal to provide the information.
March 2023
March saw the opening of the impressive Goddard’s Brewery building, a new home for the brewery which Anthony Goddard founded with his wife, Alix, in 1993. We told how the couple started the business after they lost everything – including their home and business – in the Lloyds of London scandal. They were among the ‘names’ who underwrote Lloyds insurance and were exposed to huge claims as the company racked up losses of £8 billion, mainly due to asbestos and pollution claims from the USA. Sadly, Alix died in September, and the new building was used as a venue for an October event that raised thousands of pounds for Mountbatten in her memory.
April 2023
Questions the IW Observer asked, in April, about child safeguarding caused Cowes Enterprise College to change its policy of not routinely informing parents if their child expressed a wish to change their gender at school. The Education Act 1996 requires schools to share such information with parents unless there is a safeguarding risk. The policy had been unearthed by Conservative campaigner, Ian Wellby.
May 2023
The news that Island Roads had received more that £250 million in the first ten years of the PFI contract made a front page story in May. Cllr Phil Jordan, now council leader and still responsible for transport and the PFI, said that what was promised by the previous Conservative administration, which signed the agreement, was not what is written in the contract. Despite the massive price tag, many IW Observer readers wrote in to tell us how bad the roads in their area are.
June 2023
June saw the Alliance administration make a complete pig’s ear of an announcement that they intended to consult on closing three primary schools. They had not even informed the schools involved before sharing the information with the press, and the first many staff in the affected schools knew of the plans was when they picked up their copy of the IW Observer. After a public outcry, the council withdrew the plans, and in the new year they will start an information campaign where there are no pre-determined outcomes of a new consultation.
July 2023
Some East Cowes residents spent much of July holed up at home because of road resurfacing work which was repeatedly delayed. Buses were unable to travel down Adelaide Grove and, unless residents were able to walk relatively long distances, they were effectively trapped at home. Island Roads apologised for the delays which they said were caused by needing deeper than expected excavations, plant breakdown and a gas leak. Local councillor, Karl Love, said that the road had only been resurfaced a few years ago and questioned why all the work wasn’t done at the same time.
August 2023
After the Tour of Britain cycling event was cancelled in September 2022, due to the death of HM The Queen, the IW Council had been hoping that the organisers, Sweetspot, would announce another cycling event would take place in its stead in 2024. In August it emerged that the IW Council were £350,000 out of pocket and the Island had not been selected to host any part of the 2024 race. The council said that until negotiations had reached an end they would not look at the possibility of suing the company, which did not have insurance in place to cover the death of the monarch. In November British Cycling withdrew the rights for Sweetspot to promote future races, saying they were owed £700,000. The IW Council said this week: “We had been in an ongoing dialogue with Sweetspot about a future stage of the tour and are taking advice on how we might be able to proceed.”
September 2023
In September we reported the outcome of a complaint made to our regulator, IMPRESS, by Bob Seely MP. He complained that a reader’s letter breached his privacy and discriminated against him. Our reader likened his ‘bizarre’ behaviour on TV to the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). We couldn’t see that speaking about his behaviour on a BBC programme could possibly be a breach of privacy, nor that pointing out the similarity to symptoms of ADHD amounted to discrimination. Mr Seely then escalated his complaints to IMPRESS, only to have them both thrown out. IMPRESS decided there was an “overwhelming presumption in favour of freedom of expression” when questioning whether politicians are suitable to hold public office.
October 2023
Robin Hill was closed unexpectedly and put on the market, through Savills in October, with a guide price of £2 1/4 million. The 88-acre visitor attraction is described as having “scope for further development”. The reasons given by Vectis Ventures, the company that operated the amusement park, as well as Blackgang Chine, included debt created by Covid loans, the cost of living crisis and poor spring and summer weather. A number of staff lost their jobs, and the popular Polar Experience and booked Christmas parties were cancelled with full refunds given. Speculation that the site would be used for housing appeared to be misplaced as an IW Council document said that residential use would not be permitted.
November 2023
A split front page in November told how a fisherman and his friends had been working around the clock to help clear drains to help deal with flooding risks, as they “all have Wellingtons and waders”. The group, led by Sam Loba, from Sandown, had won plaudits on social media as they had also been filling and distributing sandbags to residents. The other story wasn’t so heart-warming, as it described a falling out between the owner of Ventnor Botanic Gardens, John Curtis, and the Ventnor Botanic Gardens Friends’ Society.
December 2023
This month’s main news has to be the massive landslip at Bonchurch. Some 20 homes were evacuated following the land movement which happened on a Sunday evening, although most are now back in their homes. The sound was described as “Like a firecracker” by one startled resident. Perhaps the most worrying thing is that a council spokeswoman has said there are likely to be more landslides over the coming weeks. We can only cross our fingers and hope that there is not worse to come.